


Come With Me If You Want True Love

by SarahSupaStar



Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, more a concept summary then an actual story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-20
Updated: 2017-12-20
Packaged: 2019-02-17 14:10:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13078530
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SarahSupaStar/pseuds/SarahSupaStar
Summary: At first Clint thought his Words meant that meeting his soulmate would be terrifying. Then he thought they meant it would be hilarious. Turns out it was both.





	Come With Me If You Want True Love

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first thing I've finished in YEARS. So I'm just gonna put it here and resist the urge to pick it apart. Because it is complete, and that in itself is a victory.

When Clint was old enough to understand his Words, the understanding came with a dawning sense of foreboding and excitement. The Words formed a tight circle on his left thigh, creating a bullseye the size of a doughnut hole and forcing him to learn how to read letters upside-down and sideways before he could understand what they said: 

_Come with me if you want to live._

As a child, Clint imagined all the thrilling and terrifying circumstances that could cause those to be his soulmate’s first words to him. Clearly there would be danger. Maybe his soulmate would rescue him from quicksand, or a monster, or a cliff’s edge, or his father. Whatever the circumstances, meeting his soulmate was going to involve Clint’s True Love charging in like Prince Charming to save him. Every child wishes to live in a fairytale, and Clint was _certain_ his Words meant that, for him, that dream would come true. 

But as the years passed, the fairytale faded. No one came to rescue Clint; it was up to him and Barney to rescue themselves. The night that they ran away to the circus was the night that Clint stopped expecting his soulmate to be his rescuer and started to fear that his Words weren’t a promise at all. Maybe instead they were a threat. 

As Clint’s life became increasingly dangerous, he would hold his breath with each new encounter. Every potential employer who turned on him when he refused a job, every tipped-off mark who clearly knew that he was coming, every person who came up behind him with a knife or a gun and a clear underestimation of his skills… Clint waited with baited breath for the first threatening words they would utter, hoping and fearing that _this_ enemy would finally be the one to say his Words. 

And then, one summer, Clint was taking a break from his excessively violent life by escaping into an excessively violent movie, and his worldview was completely shattered and reformed. The protagonist was cornered, the tension was climbing, the audience was on the edge of their seats… and then Arnold Schwarzenegger delivered his famous line. Clint’s brain stuttered and his heart stopped. And then he burst out laughing, earning a several nasty looks from other people in the movie theatre. His soulmate wasn’t a rescuer _or_ an enemy, they were a _massive_ _nerd_! The relief was exhilarating, and for the first time since leaving home as a child, Clint felt affection for his someday-true-love. 

Five years later, Clint’s life was still excessively violent, but the appeal of mercenary work was starting to wear thin. Some alphabet soup agency had caught his trail, and Clint was starting to consider letting them bring him in, even as he fired arrows over his shoulder and fled across the roof of a building to evade capture. 

He was seconds from jumping off the side of the building to make his escape, when a gunshot rang out and a bullet pierced his thigh. Clint gaped down at the wound as he stumbled to his knees. It was a clean shot, through-and-through, and Clint was certain that the exit wound lay directly in the center of his Words. He watched in awed wonder as a man in a suit emerged from the shadows. The weapon in his hand was pointed at the ground, but it was clear that he was the one who had fired. The man approached Clint slowly before extending his hand and saying with all the gravity of an action hero, “Come with me if you want to live.” The man’s intensity only lasted for a moment before his expression cracked into a grin. “I’ve always wanted to say that.” 

Clint stared at this ridiculous man, his _soulmate_ , who had the skills to track him across several countries, who had hit him with what even Hawkeye would admit was a damned difficult shot, and who had branded Clint’s body with a famous movie quote simply because he couldn’t resist the temptation to be dorky and dramatic when given the opportunity. The only response Clint could muster was to throw his head back and laugh.

**Author's Note:**

> Phil doesn't actually have Words, but along the outside of his trigger finger there is a soundwave of Clint's laughter.


End file.
